Obedient listener
This week's verses are Genesis 6:5-14:
These verses are another sort of return to the beginning. Noah was an ordinary guy with an extraordinary love for God. And God's love for him was extraordinary too. Mankind had become so evil that God had decided it would be easier to wipe the whole world out and start over. Except he decided to save Noah. He gives him the world's biggest DIY project as a way to give him a part in his plan to simultaneously destroy the world and save it.
Think about it though. If Noah was a godly man, he would have been offended too at how depraved mankind had gotten. But imagine being told that the world you know was about to end, and that you had to make outrageous preparations even just to save your immediate family. Would you believe it? Or would you assume it was just your "flesh" talking, wishing that the evil people would disappear so you could enjoy the good life and watch movies without people talking on their phones during them?
Imagine God had spoken to you, in the way you have grown accustomed to hearing him speak, and told you to build an enormous boat and fill it full of animals? Would you take it as seriously as Noah did? Would you do it without arguing, maybe asking him to at least save your favorite band, or the cute girl from chemistry class, or the people in your home town too? It's as much a testament to Noah's righteousness as to the depravity of mankind at that time that he doesn't even bother to try to save them!
But what an honor to have God share his emotions and his plans with you! He didn't have to tell Noah the Earth was ruined, or that he planned to destroy it. And he's God, so he could have just whisked Noah and the coolest animals on Earth up to heaven while he cleansed the Earth, instead of asking him to build an enormous boat. But he included Noah, an ordinary man, in his world-changing plans.
Imagine, before power tools, being asked to build a boat out of wood, nearly one and a half football fields long, by hand! Do you have any idea how long that would take? Or how much work it would be? Or how expensive it would be? Or how embarrassing? Or what other things you'd have to give up in order to do it? And all of this while the threat of drowning is looming over your head if you don't finish in time or if you didn't get the details right. Remember, this is before you had YouTube to tell you how to do things.
God trusted Noah with such a big thing, and Noah worked so hard to be obedient. What a great relationship they must have had! Noah found favor in the sight of God. That means God liked him. And Noah was a godly man who walked with God. That means Noah liked God.
God loves us too. And he partners with us too, usually with less carpentry. Are we as willing as Noah to be a part of his plan to save the world? Do we love God enough that we could say we're godly people who walk with Him?
But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended. So the Lord said, “I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—everything from humankind to animals, including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them.”
But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.
This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a godly man; he was blameless among his contemporaries. He walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth, and indeed it was ruined, for all living creatures on the earth were sinful. So God said to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am about to destroy them and the earth. Make for yourself an ark of cypress wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and out.
These verses are another sort of return to the beginning. Noah was an ordinary guy with an extraordinary love for God. And God's love for him was extraordinary too. Mankind had become so evil that God had decided it would be easier to wipe the whole world out and start over. Except he decided to save Noah. He gives him the world's biggest DIY project as a way to give him a part in his plan to simultaneously destroy the world and save it.
Think about it though. If Noah was a godly man, he would have been offended too at how depraved mankind had gotten. But imagine being told that the world you know was about to end, and that you had to make outrageous preparations even just to save your immediate family. Would you believe it? Or would you assume it was just your "flesh" talking, wishing that the evil people would disappear so you could enjoy the good life and watch movies without people talking on their phones during them?
Imagine God had spoken to you, in the way you have grown accustomed to hearing him speak, and told you to build an enormous boat and fill it full of animals? Would you take it as seriously as Noah did? Would you do it without arguing, maybe asking him to at least save your favorite band, or the cute girl from chemistry class, or the people in your home town too? It's as much a testament to Noah's righteousness as to the depravity of mankind at that time that he doesn't even bother to try to save them!
But what an honor to have God share his emotions and his plans with you! He didn't have to tell Noah the Earth was ruined, or that he planned to destroy it. And he's God, so he could have just whisked Noah and the coolest animals on Earth up to heaven while he cleansed the Earth, instead of asking him to build an enormous boat. But he included Noah, an ordinary man, in his world-changing plans.
Imagine, before power tools, being asked to build a boat out of wood, nearly one and a half football fields long, by hand! Do you have any idea how long that would take? Or how much work it would be? Or how expensive it would be? Or how embarrassing? Or what other things you'd have to give up in order to do it? And all of this while the threat of drowning is looming over your head if you don't finish in time or if you didn't get the details right. Remember, this is before you had YouTube to tell you how to do things.
God trusted Noah with such a big thing, and Noah worked so hard to be obedient. What a great relationship they must have had! Noah found favor in the sight of God. That means God liked him. And Noah was a godly man who walked with God. That means Noah liked God.
God loves us too. And he partners with us too, usually with less carpentry. Are we as willing as Noah to be a part of his plan to save the world? Do we love God enough that we could say we're godly people who walk with Him?
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